Time travel

A strange title today, but that was because yesterday was a very strange day: my flight from Nagoya to Honolulu departed at 22:05 in the evening the 15th, and arrived at 10:00 in the morning of march 15. The flight itself took 7 hours, so basically the 15th of march consisted of 33 hours! Now, I didn't see any wrinkles disappear or, my hairline expand so I don't think it made me any younger, however, it is kinda a good revenge for my too short birthday :-).

Besides the actual time travel, I also have to do some mental time travel: I am about a week behind with my blog posts so this week I will post one each day, to get up to par again. But first: the view from the office:

To the coast:

To the ocean: 

But now, on to Osaka, for my four days of adventures there:

It was kind of late on my last night in Kyoto, but luckily the travel time to Osaka is short, so I didn't have to get up that early. Walking around with the backpack was heavy, so I got on the subway from the hostel, and also in Osaka I immediately got into the subway to avoid walking around with 25kg+ of luggage. This time the map proved to be easier to interpret: I could find my way to the hostel in one go! The hostel itself however was not that great: very helpful staff, but the sleeping room was in a 'carport' with very small curtains providing a complete lack of privacy. Furthermore most of the guests I spoke to were kinda 'to themselves'. Well, a good contrast with Kyoto, and since I would go couchsurfing not a problem at all. 

First thing on the agenda was to go to Nara. Nara was another of Japans capitals (wikipedia), and therefore has many old buildings. But it is also famous for its park with deer. These are very dangerous:

These deer have become so aggressive and tame because all the tourists feed them. As it was a sunday, there were also a lot of (mainly Japanese) tourists around today, making the park feel like a shopping street in Tokyo.

Besides the deer there is one other attraction that everyone comes to visit: a temple with a giant buddha inside. The statue, and especially its age make this a very impressive place. 

I walked through the rest of the park, but didn't find any really interesting things anymore. I did however find some Japanese working on a strange kind of scaffolding (see below). As I was getting kinda tired I went to find some coffee on the way back to the train. Besides coffee I found a seismic museum displaying some interesting demo's with regard to foundations and building dampeners. There was also a chair where you could get strapped into to experience some of Japan's famous earthquakes. I didn't try but did enjoy seeing some teenagers and children get 'shaken'.

When I got back in the hostel I had a look at some leaflets to find out if there were any special things going on in Osaka and I found out what the scaffolds were for. They are actually torches, which are carried by monks around the temple at sunset only this week.... that caused some curses because I left Nara around 17:30 while the procession takes place at 19:00... oh well, too bad.

The evening in Osaka was spent behind the laptop, choosing a travel schedule for Hawaii, finding a hotel, flights, all the while chatting on the phone to arrange a meeting with a couchsurfer to show me Osaka. By the time I am nearly finished I get to talking with a (French speaking) Belgian guy. We decide to hit town together to get something to eat and get a few drinks. Our Japanese neighbors are once again very helpful with ordering stuff via iPad, and also with tips for where to go after dinner (turn right at the H&M). We especially didn't order any french fries, to keep to local customs, and there you go: our neighbors eating french fries (with chopsticks for fun). 

We did notice we were being discriminated by the staff: the Japanese guests received 'kroepoek' (shrimp crackers) for free when entering, and also the first toast (Kampai!) was made by the staff (so loud the whole restaurant could hear it). We received neither. This is probably because the staff is not confident enough to try this in English, but it did feel a little strange anyway. 

After dinner we decided to follow the advice of our (young) neighbours. Ofcourse we had to check with other people (our age) on the street a few times to feel confident enough that indeed, this was the area to go. We walked down the street a few times (21:00 sunday night) and did find a lot of drunk people, but most looked like they were heading home. In the end we decided to go for club 'Pure', but after asking the doorman if it was busy he truthfully answered that it was not. He even gave us the tip to head for bar 'zero' around the corner, as that was a nicer place..... These Japanese and their honesty :-). Zerro proved to be an Irish pub, but this time a real Japanese one. The bartender was great and chatted with us for a bit and the place was also full of locals. After a few beers we decided to try pure again, just to reward the doorman for his honesty.

Once inside the place was a strange mix of hip-hop and strip club. There were (very amateurish) pole dancing girls, a lot of japanese in weird hip-hop outfits, and a DJ (shouldn't that be MC?) playing rap music. However, two drinks for free for the 1000 yen entry fee, so when we noticed that that included liquor (rum-coke, or wodka red-bull for +100 yen or 70 eurocent) we weren't complaining. The place started filling up more and more, and also the music turned more and more towards dance/techno (with the same hiphoppy, baggy sports outfits, sunglasses, baseball caps crowd). The volume also increased to volumes that were really damaging ears, so halfway the night I put in my ipod headphones to ensure that I could still hear when 60+. Anyway, we had a great night on the dance floor and ended up taking the taxi back to the hostel at around 04:30. Not bad for a sunday night!

Full picture set for Nara here:

Day 0 Osaka: Nara

More Osaka next time, expect some weighty entertainment!